After last week’s cancelation, the Horns will play the season’s first midweek game to end a four-game homestand.
For the fourth straight game, the No. 15 Texas Longhorns remain at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Tuesday, facing the Incarnate Word Cardinals prior to a road trip to Nevada for the Las Vegas Classic with games against the Washington Huskies, Texas Tech Red Raiders, and Illinois Fighting Illini.
Hosting Incarnate Word marks the first midweek game for Texas after inclement weather forced the cancelation of last Tuesday’s matchup against Houston. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. Central on SEC Network+.
Freshman right-hander Jason Flores will receive his first start and first appearance for the Longhorns on Tuesday while right-hander EJ Garcia (2-0, 4.35 ERA) is set to take the mound for the Cardinals. The sophomore has already pitched 10.1 innings for UIW, making two relief appearances during the opening weekend, going 6.0 innings with one run allowed in a start last week against ACU, and coming out of the bullpen on Sunday in a win over Texas Southern.
The Cardinals enter the game with a 7-1 record, the program’s best start since joining Division 1.
Texas had to earn everything it got against Dartmouth over the weekend, out-scoring the Big Green by one run on Friday and Saturday before notching a 4-1 victory on Sunday to complete the series sweep.
The pitching staff for the Horns performed well, holding the visitors to a .167 batting average and six runs on 15 hits over the three games, but Texas struggled in the batter’s box.
The Friday starter for Dartmouth allowed three runs, two earned, over 4.1 innings, the Saturday starter allowed one run on hits in 4.0 innings, and the Sunday starter went 4.2 innings, giving up two runs, one earned. In an appearance on the Around the Horns podcast, Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle praised the work of Dartmouth pitching coach Blake McFadden working under 36th-year head coach Bob Whalen, a Hanover institution.
“At least from where I stood, their pitching coach did an awesome job of having a game plan and executing it,” Schlossnagle said on Monday.
McFadden put the Big Green pitchers in a position to be successful and they did the rest, in part by showing physical improvement over the 2024 season, the last available video the Longhorns had on their opponents since Dartmouth hadn’t played a game this season prior to Friday.
According to Schlossnagle, Saturday starter Eddie Albert was at 88 to 91 miles per hour on his fastball with some sync, but was throwing up to 94 with that ride to his fastball at the Disch.
“Dartmouth’s starters, they all did a really nice job of pitching in their own way and pitching to the conditions and did a pretty good — you’ve got guys running it up to 94, you’ve got guys executing, they were throwing strikes, I mean, tons of tons of strikes and tons of strikes with the off-speed pitches,” Schlossnagle said.
“Yesterday’s starter had great ride to the fastball, like SEC-type ride. Not 95 with ride, but 90-92 with good ride to the fastball, and that’s good preparation for us.”
As the season progresses, Texas will have more recent information available to aid with more effectively scouting opponents.
”By the time we get to SEC play, you don’t hide anything, right? I mean, there’s nothing to hide — you better compensate and adjust and you better have a good game plan or you’re gonna get smoked. So I think that played a little bit of role into it as well. Our players are learning that stuff,” Schossnagle said.
Some players are still trying to find a rhythm in the batter’s box, including junior shortstop Jalin Flores and sophomore Easton Winfield, who can play left field, but has also served as the designated hitter.
Flores, who passed up the MLB Draft to return to Texas for a third season, is hitting .217 in 27 at bats. Strikeout issues have resurfaced for the 6’2, 210-pounder with nine so far, tied for the team lead with Winfield and sophomore left fielder Tommy Farmer. And the power hasn’t been there, either — all three of the hits so far for Flores have been singles after knocking 22 doubles and 18 home runs last season to boost his slugging percentage from .311 as a freshman to .656 in 2024.
“I think Jalin Flores has proven that he can be a super competitive, confident, successful Division 1 hitter. He hasn’t gotten off the great start. He’s really playing good defense, but you’re trying to give him as much rope as possible,” Schlossnagle said.
After batting .332 with eight doubles and 10 home runs last season for Louisiana-Monroe, Winfield has struggled in his return to his home state, batting .118 with two singles and similar strikeout problems to Flores after posting a strikeout rate of 22 percent with the Warhawks.
Schlossnagle believes that there a several players on the team simply trying too hard for hits, causing them to swing at pitches outside the strike zone and Winfield certainly seems to fall into that category as someone who doesn’t want to let the fans down.
“The season is going to tell us who we are over the course of the entire season, not any one game or any one stretch,” Schlossnagle said.